lumberman, b. Niedersaulheim, Germany. He migrated to the U.S. in 1852, settling in Erie County, Pa. In 1856 he moved to Rock Island, Ill., where he began work for a lumber firm. In 1860 he purchased a Rock Island sawmill in partnership with his brother-in-law, F. C. A. Denckmann. At first the mill obtained its logs from jobbers along the Mississippi River, but Weyerhaeuser soon realized the advantages of an independent source of supply, and in 1868 began to purchase extensive timber stands in the Chippewa valley. Conflicts had already arisen between the Chippewa River millowners, who wanted all timber from the area to be processed locally, and the Beef Slough Manufacturing, Booming, Log Driving and Transportation Co., which had been rafting logs to the mills along the Mississippi. In 1870 the Beef Slough Co. was virtually bankrupt due to the tactics of the local lumbermen; realizing the importance of this company to his Rock Island mill, Weyerhaeuser persuaded a group of Mississippi River lumbermen to join him in leasing the boom and storage rights of the Beef Slough Co. In the same year he organized the Mississippi River Logging Co., composed of the major lumber firms from St. Louis to Beef Slough, at the mouth of the Chippewa River. For ten years a legal and economic battle was waged between the local millowners and the Mississippi River Logging Co. for control of the Chippewa valley timber. By 1880 the Weyerhaeuser syndicate had forced the Chippewa River lumbermen to terms, and in 1881 the Chippewa Logging Co. ("the pool") was organized. Dominated by the Weyerhaeuser group, this company handled the distribution of timber to all the mills in the area. The syndicate also gained control of the Chippewa Lumber and Boom Co. in 1880, thus acquiring the Brunet mill at Chippewa Falls. The mill was rebuilt in 1886 and was reputedly the largest in the world. By 1900, with the timber stands of the Chippewa almost exhausted, Weyerhaeuser began to move his interests westward. In 1907 the American Immigration Co. was organized to dispose of the land holdings in the Chippewa valley, and by 1909 the original Mississippi River Logging Co., which had virtually monopolized the timber output of the area for thirty years, was dissolved. Weyerhaeuser moved his operations to Minnesota and the Pacific coast and died in St. Paul in 1914. Amer. Lumbermen (3 ser., Chicago, 1905, 1906); R. F. Fries, Empire in Pine (Madison, 1951); Wis. Mag. Hist., 19; Who's Who in Amer., 6 (1910).

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[Source: Dictionary of Wisconsin biography]